Philodrill H1 income declines to P72.77M

MANILA, Philippines - Profits of listed upstream oil firm Philodrill Corp. slumped in the first half as its oil field was non-operational for the entire first quarter.

In its financial report, Philodrill said its first half net income sank 90 percent to P72.77 million from P722.134 million a year ago.

“Total revenues for the first two quarters ended June 30 decreased by P672.3 million or 67 percent to P325.7 million from P998 million for the same period last year,” Philodrill said.

“The decrease was mainly brought about by the absence of production from the Galoc oilfield in the first quarter of 2012,” it added.

In November, Galoc Production Co. (GPC) temporarily stopped operations at the oil field to give way for upgrades.

GPC, which holds 58.29 percent of Service Contract (SC) 14C, is jointly-owned by the Vitol Group and Otto Energy Ltd. Other stakeholders in SC 14C include Oriental Petroleum and its unit Linapacan Oil Gas & Power Corp. (7.57 percent); Philodrill (7.03 percent); Forum Energy Corp. (2.27 percent); Alcorn Gold (1.53 percent) and PetroEnergy (1.03 percent).

Galoc resumed its commercial operations on April 2.

Gross output declined to 612,324 barrels in the first semester from 1.34 million barrels last year.

The company sourced its oil primarily from Galoc gas field, with Nido, Matinloc, North Matinloc contributing marginally.

“The average price per barrel for the period ended June 30 was $107.64 as compared to $115.22 for the same period last year,” Philodrill said.

Lower expenses were not able to offset the slide in revenues.

Total costs and expenses slipped to P238.1 million from P249.1 million in the first half last year as operating costs fell by a fifth, Philodrill said.